1. Field of the Invention
My present invention relates to the construction of building foundation walls, retaining walls, and the like, and more particularly to methods and apparatus for erecting foundation reinforcing bars (rebars) and maintaining the same in position during the pouring of footings for such walls.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The term "prior art" as used herein or in any statement made by or on behalf of applicant means only that any document of thing referred to as prior art bears, directly or inferentially, a date which is earlier than the effective filing date hereof.
It is known in the prior art to incorporate reinforcing bars (rebars) in the footings for building foundation walls, retaining walls, etc., by suitably positioning such reinforcing bars within the form in which the footing is to be poured, pouring the concrete of the footing into the form, and after the setting of the concrete removing the supporting means by which the reinforcing bars were theretofore maintained in position.
Typically, such rebar supporting means are comprised of a plurality of round, solid metal stakes, sometimes called "form stakes", which are driven into the earth floor of the footing form, or into the earth closely adjacent to the footing form.
Horizontal wooden beam members, sometimes collectively called the "template", are then nailed to the form stakes by means of nails passing through suitable holes provided in the form stakes.
The template commonly consists of one or more lengths of that kind of lumber commonly referred to as "two-by-fours", and is most commonly located close to the top of the footing form, i.e., about one-half inch thereabove.
The footing rebars are then affixed to the template, each in such a position that after the pouring of the footing, and the setting of the poured concrete, a large portion of each rebar is captive within the concrete, and another portion of each rebar projects upwardly from the upper surface of the poured concrete, i.e., upward from the upper surface of the footing.
Conventionally, the footing rebars are affixed to the template either by toenailing or by bailing wire wrapped around each rebar and the adjacent portion of the template.
This prior art method of footing rebar erection and positioning, however, suffers from certain inherent deficiencies.
The affixation of the rebars to the template by bailing wire is both time-consuming and expensive. That is to say, the wrapping of bailing wire around the rebar (vertical) and template (horizontal) involves considerably manual labor, which is costly at current labor rates, and also involves delays in completing a typical foundation wall or retaining wall.
The affixation of the retaining bars to the template by toenailing, while perhaps less time-consuming than affixation by bailing wire, involves the risk of displacing the template or loosening the form stakes by repeated hammer blows, resulting in the deviation of the rebars from their optimum position. As is well known to those having ordinary skill in the art, however, mispositioning of the rebars can have a deleterious effect on wall strength, and can obtrude difficulties in pouring the upper reaches of a wall, since the rebars in the wall are attached and aligned with to the rebars which extend upward from the footing.
A reinforcing bar aligner and clamp is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,074,897, issued to Fredrick H. Behn on Feb. 24, 1978.
The device of the Behn patent, however, is adapted to hold a first reinforcing bar in fixed end-to-end relation to a second reinforcing bar while they are being spliced together, and its structure appears to be radically different from the structure of applicant's invention.
Various clamps for clamping vertically disposed members to horizontal members are shown in the prior art, e.g., in U.S. Pat. Nos. 884,772 and 4,369,945.
It is believed that the documents listed immediately below contain information which is or might be considered to be material to the examination of this patent application.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,105,954 PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 2,892,207 PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,345,061 PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,139,189 PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,662
No representation or admission is made that any of the above-listed documents is part of the prior art, or that a search has been made, or that no more pertinent information exists.
A copy of each of the above-listed United States patents is supplied to the Patent and Trademark Office herewith.